The global AIDS epidemic continued to pick up pace last year as a record 5 million people became infected with HIV, more than in any other single year, according to a biannual report released by the Joint U.N. Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). The 2004 UNAIDS Report of The Global AIDS Epidemic found that the number of people living with HIV/AIDS has risen in every region in the world to reach 38 million. The report also found that while global spending on AIDS has risen 15-fold since 1996 - from $300 million to nearly $5 billion last year - it remains inadequate, since the world will need to spend $12 billion annually by 2005 and $20 billion annually by 2007 to fight AIDS effectively in developing countries.